The impending surge for the University of Everywhere
The U.S. (make that the world) is on the brink of the greatest educational change since Gutenberg invented printing. That is the argument Kevin Carey presents in his new book The End of College.
Innovation
College isn’t the only path to human flourishing. Individuals’ postsecondary choices should be aligned with individual academic preparation, talents, and preferences, and education providers should be able to experiment with new methods and models. The following articles highlight new programs, identify barriers, and suggest policies that encourage innovation.
Universities in Islamic nations make the same mistakes we do—but worse
Mar 20, 2015 ·
Richard K. Vedder
Universities are great inventions, and they have a role everywhere, in areas rich and poor, Christian, Islamic, and even atheist. But the Law of Diminishing Returns applies: universities in small doses can disseminate and advance knowledge in welfare-inducing ways, but if expanded too fast, they produce dismal results at the margin. In the Middle East/North African region, this problem is aggravated by over-centralization.
NLRB’s pro-union ruling attacks private higher education
Mar 18, 2015 ·
Charles Baird
American labor unions are in serious decline and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has become nothing more than a legal enforcer for panicked union bosses. A recent example is the December 2014 decision in Pacific Lutheran University that may force more private-sector higher education faculty to accept unionism if they want to work.
Let’s bring Western Governors University to North Carolina
Feb 20, 2015 ·
Jenna A. Robinson
For North Carolina, Western Governors University would be a welcome alternative to traditional credit-hour programs, particularly for adult learners who want job training and a degree—not a four-year “experience.”
There’s a silver lining in Scott Walker’s proposed $300M cut to the University of Wisconsin
Feb 16, 2015 ·
Christian D'Andrea
Walker’s proposal would make every member of the UW system a public authority—a designation that would allow the state’s universities to take bureaucratic control of their own operations. This would effectively wash away the state’s control over major decisions such as tuition rates, hiring and firing practices, employee compensation, purchasing goods and materials, and construction projects.
What I’ve learned at the Pope Center
Feb 11, 2015 ·
Jane S. Shaw
Over the past eight years I have experienced a rich and sometimes tumultuous education about the economics, politics, and culture of today’s campuses.
Scholars find that they can break with universities and make it on their own
Feb 6, 2015 ·
Scott Rank
The jailbreak of academics outside the walls of a university is an opportunity for students. Self-learners don’t have to spend $40,000/year for the privilege of expanding the life of the mind. Adults who want to dabble in Russian literature don’t even have to spend $3,000 for a night course at the community college.
Saving academia from itself
Jan 28, 2015 ·
Jay Schalin
Today’s new independent academic centers were conceived to solve a real and difficult modern problem—how to counter academia’s gradual purging of a vast array of ideas and knowledge that are still very much alive and central to the nation’s intellectual and political dialogues.
A bold experiment is being watched by North Carolina’s private colleges
Jan 26, 2015 ·
Jesse Saffron
The Benedictine monks who founded Belmont Abbey College 138 years ago are better known for peacefulness than for trend-setting. But the Gaston County campus is the scene of a bold experiment watched by other private liberal-arts colleges in North Carolina.
What progressives need to know
Jan 21, 2015 ·
Jane S. Shaw
George Ehrhardt, one of the few avowed conservative political scientists at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, has published an article that attempts to explain to the political left what the political right’s views are on higher education.